Though Alyse
Horton may not have known at the time, the inspiration for her platform as Miss
Murray started when she was in junior high.

“One of my friends
overdosed on painkillers and almost passed away,” Horton said. “Then in high
school and college I watched a lot of friends battle abusive prescription drugs
and even today they still battle with addiction.”

On May 13,
Horton continued her battle against prescription drug abuse holding a Drop the
Drugs 5K at Murray Park, a fun run and walk where people could drop off old and
unused prescription drugs.

“It’s awesome,”
Horton said. “You never know putting something like this on for the first time
how many people you’re going to get and we had a really good turnout. I’m
really pleasantly surprised.”

More than 60
people attended the event which raised over $500. All proceeds went to benefit
local organizations that work with prescription drug abuse prevention.

Horton teamed up
with sponsors Select Health and its parent company Intermountain Healthcare for
the event. They provided water and T-shirts for the participants.

“When (Horton)
told us she was doing a take back event we were like, ‘sweet! We got to partner
with her. What can we do to help?’,” said Janae Letterman, committee benefit
chair for Select Health.

Horton’s
manifesto since she was crowned Miss Murray in September is “Use only as directed: the prevention
of prescription drug abuse.” Utah has seen a 400 percent increase since 2000 in
deaths from prescription drug abuse. And according to the Utah Health
Department, Murray City has a higher rate than the state average.

It’s why Horton
is not only holding drug take back events, she’s also provided prevention
education with every fifth grader in the Murray School District. She’s worked
with the Utah Health Department, IHC and Select Health. She’s also spoken with
various junior high and high school health classes.

“She’s spreading
that influence and making people realize, oh my doctor gave me these 30 pills
but I don’t really need to keep them in my cabinet,” Letterman said. “Any kind
of education like this is awesome.”

Taylor Read, who
finished first in the 5K, said you might not even realize when people are
experiencing problems.

“It’s something
that a lot of people, just average people that live normal lives, don’t think
about on everyday basis,” Read said.

Letterman said
many people don’t realize what the word—opioid—means. That they are drugs that
doctors give you and that they’re “as bad as heroin.”

“The biggest
thing,” Horton said, “is just avoid using. If you can avoid using painkillers
at all in your life, that’s ideal.”

She added that
it’s just as important to dispose of the painkillers—such as Percocet—when they
are no longer needed or limiting their use. When a doctor prescribes a bottle
of pills for surgery or wisdom teeth removal, she said, you “really don’t need that
whole bottle.”

Letterman said
Tylenol and ibuprofen can oftentimes be just as effective.

Disseminating
this information has kept Horton busy, but she said it is well worth it.

“It’s been
amazing… just the people you
get to interact with, the people you meet, the connections you make are really
rewarding,” she said.

Horton is
gearing up to compete for Miss Utah in June, but she’s currently working with
the Utah Health Policy Project and intends to get her master’s degree in
healthcare administration.

“It’s important
for her and people to get out there and educate so the fact that she’s out
there amongst the people is great,” Letterman said.